Some of these older buildings.
...has burned down multiple times.
♪ jazz ♪
[Chinese]
What's up, Ena?
[Ukrainian]
You get a lot of this in the city.
What's up, guys?
Today I am walking the streets of Kyiv, Ukraine.
One of my favorite cities in the world, where I currently live
and I'm gonna show you some of the coolest neighborhoods in the city.
So this street is...
Probably the most European feeling street of the city.
It's a very good walking, pedestrian-friendly, type-place.
Cafes, restaurants...
Right off of Yaroslaviv Val,
there are these very cool older neighborhoods.
Don't know the name of the streets to be honest.
Great place just to canvas.
Just to go through the side streets, take it in.
It's got sort of that old world feel to it.
This street is one parallel to Yaroslaviv Val
and it's got a lot of flavor going on here.
And so you either like this stuff or you don't.
Like some of these older buildings that are decrepit,
uninhabited, need to be restored
and depending on what you like, that either adds charm or flavor
or it depresses you because everything's not preserved and nice.
Personally...
I like how there are many different architectural layers and feels
going on in small amounts of spaces.
Here we go, we got some...
I don't know if you can see that through the light but there's a mural.
There's a mural on this building.
You see a lot of these murals in the city.
All these little streets here, all these little side streets in this zone.
Again, off Yaroslaviv Val are very cool.
Good place just to get lost in.
Here's a new art room.
What's it called? The naked room.
Went in there last week, pretty cool.
They also have coffee.
Malevich is a big, big name here.
I don't know the history exactly
but I know he's either from here or he lived here.
One of my favorite restaurants, Zig Zag.
Very stylishly done, good food, good service.
Yeah, sort of hidden away here.
Let's take a right, see what's going on in here.
So you get a lot of this in the city.
A lot of courtyards.
A lot of, let's call 'em secret passageways
that just lead to, well, stuff like this.
If you're a curious person, this is the place
because it's not Switzerland.
Things were not laid out with organization, let's say.
So there are many layers.
Many, many layers to this city.
Like things were built obviously at different time periods in different ways
and then so you find these labyrinths
sort of lacing through courtyards and restaurants.
This is a coffee shop back here and that's what I mean.
You can just find yourself stumbling upon random coffee shops
that are not gonna be out in the open.
We're in the very center but you can get this.
Which is great.
Like these little parks and these common zones.
And there we go, it pokes through to the other side.
That was completely unplanned.
The collection of interesting architecture continues.
Love these doors on this building.
I think it's a Gothic style.
And overall, it's just a nice vibe.
The cars are moving slower than the people right now
and that's the case with a lot of the center of the city here.
So if you gotta get around, walking works really well.
The metro works really well.
When you do need a car, you need to get some distances,
then Uber is fantastic here.
Fairy tale, medieval feel to it.
-[women yelling from car] Peter, here.
Hi, we know you.
-What's up?
-What's up? Hi.
-How cool is Kyiv today?
-[both] It's amazing.
-It's cool every day. -Yeah, everyday.
-I've had very little bad experiences with people on the streets here.
It's a welcoming feel to tourists.
Even though I live here, but still, I'm an outsider for sure.
So here we're coming up on Golden Gate,
and this is probably the biggest tourist site, or one of 'em
and this is one of the original gates in the city.
It's a replica because everything was wooden here.
Everything has burned down multiple times.
So this architecture's all from turn of the century.
Turn of the century, I think it's all like early 1900s.
Years ago, the currency took an absolute beating here
but it's stabilized and come around.
Actually this is the best I've seen it for the hryvnia
I moved here three years ago.
It was up to 28, maybe even 29.
Now it's down at what, roughly 24?
Metro stop Zoloti Vorota.
It's either this one or another one that's the deepest one in the world
and very cool even if you don't want to go on the metro.
Go down the escalators 'cause they go down forever.
What is it, October 19th?
And we're getting this great, beautiful, warm weather.
♪ music coming from cafe ♪
Hopefully the video captures it, captures the feel.
Everyone's out, spirits are high.
Opera house...
and...
The clouds, the skies are like...
Skys are a little hazy today
and there's some burning going on out in the countryside.
They're burning the leaves, or the grasses, or whatever
and well I'm not gonna lie, air's not always great in the city.
If I'm gonna say there's one sort of annoying issue in this city
when on the streets, is the fact that the emissions,
there's a lot of vehicles without catalytic converters
and they use some inferior gas that doesn't burn well.
So you get those hits.
You get those hits of a tailpipe often
and it's not overbearing but it's enough to notice.
I don't know if you're sensitive to that stuff.
I don't wanna bitch.
It's beautiful, it's cool.
$8 a ticket or something like that.
So to do these cultural things in Kyiv, very accessible.
Very easy to get tickets usually.
Here's a hot topic, language.
People speak both Ukrainian, and Russian.
And it's changing.
It's changing somewhat.
The young people are speaking much more Ukrainian.
There's been a big emphasis from the government to speak more Ukrainian.
On the streets of Kyiv, arbitrarily I'm gonna say it's 60...
65% Russian that you hear.
40... 35% Ukrainian.
So either language works.
Now one thing to make certain, as a tourist, say "Kyiv".
And you're gonna pronounce it wrong
unless you have amazing skills, linguistic skills.
But it's Kyiv and Kiev, is the Ukrainian transliteration.
Kiev is the Russian transliterization.
And most you you have heard Kiev from the outside.
Better to say Kyiv when you're here
and even me saying, "Kyiv", I'm gonna pronounce it incorrectly
and people are gonna think I'm saying, "Kiev", and I'd like to say to those
that police me in comments right now 'cause I know you're coming,
say, "Three hundred and thirty three." please.
Quickly, "Three hundred and thirty three."
and unless you speak English extremely well,
you're gonna mess that up.
But the cool thing is the languages, they flow well together here.
Like, even one person will speak Ukrainian and the other one will speak Russian
and they're in the same conversation harmoniously.
So it's a testament to the culture.
I think it's a very cool aspect that there doesn't seem to be a big sticking point
or one language trying to absolutely crush the other one.
On the streets here, online you'll see a different story for sure
but I think Ukrainian's the future here
because the young people are all studying Ukrainian in school
moreso than Russian.
So the young people are the future therefore,
Ukrainian will probably be the future language.
City like this just has to be a nightmare with the utilities.
I mean it's old.
There are just layers, upon layers, upon layers of infrastructure.
Always ripping up the streets here.
You want some history?
Here you go, Saint Sophia.
Built in the 11th century
and named after Hagia Sophia in Istanbul.
Definitely worth checking out, you can go up into this tower.
There's a beautiful area inside there.
Put some time into it.
What is really cool about this city is it's close to a lot of things.
So Istanbul, seriously... Hour and 45, 50 minutes to get there.
Berlin, under two hours.
Helsinki, under two hours.
So you have this city that's sort of smack in the middle of so many things.
We're gonna go over there, Saint Michaels.
I used to live in that building.
Where is it? Back there with the antennae on top.
From what I was told, it was the former KGB building.
♪ ambient ♪
Yeah.
And so there's a babushka mafiosa
and for those outside of Ukraine or the Slavic world
the babushkas are like Facebook but better
as in they know the algorithms of your life.
Like they know if your relationship will be successful.
They know if your kids are gonna do well in life.
They know exactly your mood.
They know who you spend time with.
They...
They are ahead in many ways, of the tech of silicon valley.
So in that building over there, the babushka mafiosa.
I always had to check in with them
and I got really close to them,
and that's a little bit dangerous to be honest.
'Cause they always want to get into your business.
Which can be annoying after a while.
I loved 'em, they were like mothers to me
but the other side of me was like,
"All right, give me some space."
A little warning if you move over here.
[cough echoing]
I grew up protestant going to church with my family when I was young
but I can't consider myself a religious person.
So from the outside I love these Orthodox churches.
First of all, the architecture on the outside is very beautiful.
Secondly, they feel more uplifting, than say, going into a Catholic cathedral.
This wasn't a great example 'cause it's pretty dark in there
but some of 'em are pretty bright
and there's a lot of light coming down into them.
And maybe it's because I have no clue what's going on really in the religion
that I'm not connected to the, say, heaviness of it
but overall, I gotta say there's a more uplifting, free feeling to it.
-[Ukrainian]
-Whoa. [woman laughing]
-[woman speaking Ukrainian]
PETER: Oh my God, look at that, look at that.
-You speak English?
-Random, random...
-Come Saturday to 11, every Friday, Saturday in this place.
[Chinese]
-Love these details.
-See you Saturday to 11.
-That's actually not normal.
The hard sale is not a normal Ukrainian trait.
So a few tourist places will have that.
That was a Georgian restaurant
and she's out there trying to do the hard sale
but there is really very, very, very little of that here.
She was sweet, she was nice, but...
Like, you know those countries you go to
like Egypt is probably the maximum of getting hit by the hawkers
but Ukraine, very, very little.
Found this little alleyway the other day.
So I'm gonna repeat myself but get into this city and just canvas it.
'Cause the coolest stuff is not on a map or in any guide book.
[door opens]
And then into this new cafe.
[door closes]
[bell rings]
♪ ambient ♪
And out to the street, Sichovyckh Striltsiv
and I love this street.
It's a very cool street.
It's about 20 minutes from Downtown.
Like the center of the city, it's about a 20 minute walk.
A lot of restaurants, a lot of cool little businesses here.
Over here is...
This place, Masha Cake.
And look at these desserts.
The Ecuador is fantastic, Oreo if you like Oreo.
But everything's very well done, quality, beautiful, amazing.
And that's Val.
And very cool people here.
That's the other plus, the staff is very, very nice.
[Ukrainian]
This is the brownie, this is...
If you eat two of these back to back you will get Type 2 diabetes.
They're that sweet but they're good.
Yeah, [Ukrainian].
That place is the bomb.
Well, Ukraine, let's just say the honest... The truth.
The honest truth here is it's not known for its friendly, overt...
Overtly friendly service in businesses like that
but there are big exceptions, like there.
This is also a nice little gem.
Right Coffee Bar.
None of these people are giving me anything.
I just want to share with you, the little nuggets in the city
that are definitely I think...
These places are off the tourist path for sure.
Yo.
What's up, Ena?
-I'm good. -Hey, what's going on?
-Peter. -I'm Gregor, nice to meet you.
-Want to meet you, Gregor. -Gregor, nice to meet you, cool.
I was just about to comment, so check this out.
In Kyiv, pre-revolution of dignity, 2014.
Nobody would stop in the crosswalks.
-Right, right.
-After... Everyone stops in the crosswalks.
In the heart of the city,
yet there are many pathways like this into the nature
and some of them lead to cool places, others lead to,
we'll say, more mysterious, darker places.
In this part of the city it's very hilly.
So there are a lot of different corners, and little nooks and crannies
to get yourself lost in.
It's really a city to be a kid in.
If you really want to explore.
How bout this, it's not a predictable place by any stretch.
[leaves crunching]
Looks a bit dodgy in here but it's really not.
I've walked through here dozens of times.
[dogs barking]
That sh*t's what you gotta watch out for, it's those dogs.
Now I've never been bitten by a dog, I don't want you to be scared.
Like dogs are gonna chase you in Kyiv.
But when you get off into these hills into these more random zones
grab a bottle, or a rock, or something.
Not to throw at them
but they understand the language of not to come closer, I believe.
They've been trained well in that department.
Yeah.
You don't want rabies.
Okay, guys.
Let's bring out... Let's get into the lightness here.
Now we're gonna go out to a little viewpoint and that was a shortcut.
[women chattering]